What's this? Book review of Ben Simmons' photo book.

Larger image (at Kinokuniya)

PhotoGuide Japan receives a commission when you buy at Amazon using our Amazon links/search box.

Search Now: �

サーチ: �

Impressions: The book's title sounds like it's an Araki book. It's certainly eye-catching, but misleading: There's no sex in this book. What caught my eye was the photographer's name. A foreigner. He turned out to be American, from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, who came to Japan about 15 years ago.

The book is a collection of photographs showing a contrast between two or more parts, elements, things, colors, people, or objects. There are also photos that were obviously paired together. It can be quite humorous. The word "diptych" is defined at the beginning of the book as "1. a pair of pictures or carvings, usually hinged together, 2a. a literary work consisting of two contrasting parts, 2b. any work made up of two matching parts treating complementary or contrasting pictorial phases."

Well, if you're looking for contrasts, contradictions, and irony, Japan is the right country to be in. Searching for contrast when taking pictures is a popular objective among photographers. But with Japan photos, they tend to be cliched. You've seen the Japan photos showing a contrast between the old and new or the traditional and modern. Such as a geisha talking on a cell phone, a sumo wrestler listening to a Walkman with earphones, or Osaka Castle flanked by twin tower office buildings. These are the type of photos I expected in this book. I'm happy to report that the pictures are more original and less cliched.

He has taken a great variety of pictures and he certainly got around the city and really hunted for pictures. There's that giant torii standing in the middle of a parking lot at Haneda Airport, a policeman checking his gaijin (alien registration) card, white pigeons on a black asphalt road, a monk wearing black robes and China hat buying a soft drink from a vending machine, a Nintendo game device clipped on the front of a woman's kimono sash, a homeless man's cardboard shelter covered with snow, and snow on cherry blossoms (cliched).

The photographs are easy to understand. Especially with all the photo titles in English (no Japanese!). It's really great for us English speakers. But what's puzzling is an essay by renown writer Ryu Murakami. He writes about "Tokyo Desire" as a title, and not at all about the photographs. He talks mainly about prostitution. Really weird to see his totally unrelated essay in this book. Maybe they just inserted it to try and sell the book. It sounds like a previously published essay. Another essay by someone named Wim Wenders talks about his love for Tokyo and glorifies the city. It's something that few of us want to read about. (Who is he anyway?) Then the photographer writes an essay too, and you find out where he came from, how he came to Japan, and how long he has been here. Not really exciting, but he gives an idea of who he is or was.

This book really should have been titled "Tokyo Contrasts," but who would pick it up with a boring title like that? Anyway, it's always nice to see a Japan-based foreign photographer publishing a photo book in Japan. (Reviewed by Philbert Ono)

600-3